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Edgefield Blacks go before U.S. Supreme Court Page 1 Volume 13 Number 29 BMi Iff | If 11 II I I HBH I B I .flbtr"'lKMßiffißhT* 1 i 11 it I I ■ > i c ß wWKmL.' - WilftiaMra"- It I i SHil w " Iragspl i | | ‘• \ I I 9H| S ik -yw /; 'IP* 1 |j|| BB| | «k • '< * '' ; rBmW ; I l 4 H 1 wJr S c W 4 X w a S i Ffe w -wi v * A 9 f .' fc I I MM XJHL/ 11 W<.-J®r I I W&HPw w i MMI AlStl s *** ;, **‘- MV : « wLl< "W/ », | ■*”'*' Mlllf Wft&j? ' £ wr» | ■ j/ aP I I xbriM wmMlk.A_. i k/*S . mn Ji • ®kMHI DR. JOSEPH E. LOWERY, chairman of the National Black Leadership Forum and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, greets Miss America, Vanessa Williams (left) and finalists Miss New Jersey, Suzet- Edgefield Blacks go before U.S. Supreme Court Forty-eight Edgefield County Blacks, ranging from five to 79 years of age, accompanied Dr. Thomas C. McCain to Washington D.C. Monday to witness argumen ts before the U.S. Supreme Court in his nine-year discrimination suit against Edgefield County. McCain, a Paine College professor and chairman of the Edgefield County Democratic Par ty, filed a class action suit in 1974 charging that the at-large voting system in Edgefield County diluted Black voting strength. Blacks make up a majority, of the population in Edgefield Coun ty and 44 percent of the registred voters, but no Black has been elec ted to county council since Recon- Black astronauts have the ‘right stuff’ Part I of a series HOUSTON —Charles F. Bolden Jr., looks like a typical astronaut. He is trim, has the in stinctive grace of an athlete, is quick to smile and exhibits a demeanor that suggests he meets life head-on. He is a Naval Academy graduate, a combat veteran of Vietnam and a qualified test pilot. And he is Black. Lt. Col. Bolden (he chose the Marine Corps after graduating from Annapolis in 1968) is one of four Black men now among the 78 members of the National Aeronautics and Space Ad ministration’s “astronaut corps.” There are also eight women in the group. In 1980, NASA selected Col. Bolden as an astronaut candidate. This was 16 years after the passage of the landmark U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964. Asked his reaction to his selection, the 36-year-old marine replied: “Mostly disbelief.” His astonishment had little to do with his color: NASA had chosen its first Blacks and first women two years earlier. But Col. Bolden had met some of his 1980 competition during a pre-selection gathering of astronaut applicants at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “Those applicants were good. Very good,” he said. They were the finalists—the last 120 out of ©fje Augiwta News-Steutew Dr. Thomas McCain struction. McCain has run three times. Utl i. - v ’ liF n bp w w < ■ ■ - xWwJr ‘ z IwF t WB.V r wi jitjy i 1 * LT. COL. CHARLES F. BOLDEN JR. (right), with fellow astronauts (from left) Lt. Col. Guion S. Bluford Jr., Dupree may consider college coaching Page 8 te Charles, and Miss Maryland, Amy Elizabeth Keys (right) at a reception sponsored by the National Conference of Black Mayors. A Dr. Charles Gomillion Each time he has won in his district, by a comfortable margin, Four Black astronauts have the ‘rinV "'"fr November 5,1983 but lost because “the voters in other districts voted for my op ponent.’’ Joining the Edgefield delegation at the Supreme Court was Dr. Charles G. Gomillion, a native of Edgefield County, and the winner of landmark Gomillion vs. Light foot gerrymandering case in Tuskegee, Ala. A Paine College graduate and a member of its board of trustees, Gomillion led the civil rights fight in Tuskegee where he headed the Social Science Department at Tuskegee Institute. A building is named in his honor at Tuskegee Institute. McCain said that Gomillion had see Edgefield, page 6 Dr. Ronald E. McNair and Col. Frederick D. Gregory. Less than 75 percent Advertising House of the Lord condemns invasion The House of the Lord Pen tecostcal Church “openly con demns the invasion of Grenada,” the Rev. Telford Pierce, pastor of the church on 10th Street, told his congregation and radio audience Sunday. Broadcast on radio station WTHB, the Rev. Pierce said there was no justification for the in vasion. “If the Cubans and the Russians are the problem, why don’t they go ahead and fight the Cubans and the Russians, instead of picking on a poor Black nation that basically has no army,” he asked. “If they want to shoot somebody, they should go to Lebanon and shoot the people who killed those 226 innocent marines.” Pierce called the invasion a “barbaric, heathen act. That act was as barbaric as when Russia in vaded Afghanistan,” he said. Emphasizing that his church —Black Tuesday Editorial October 25th may well be well remembered as Black Tuesday. On that day, President Reagan launched a cruel, coward ly, clandestine invasion of the smallest nation in the western hemisphere, an invasion that included the murder of elderly mental patients. The media were barred from covering and report ing what took place. And since the media blackout Diana Ross, Michael Jackson friendship close •age 3 does not believe in communism, but in Kingdom building, Pierce said, “This (U.S.) is not a God fearing nation. This is one of the most sinful nations under the sun—filled with hypocrisy from the White House on down.” Pierce that members of his chur ch talked with Grenada’s am bassador to the United Nations at the church’s 53rd Convocation in Brooklyn, N.Y. Oct. 9. He said that Ambassador Carswell Taylor talked about how Grenada was preparing to celebrate the third anniversary of its independence. He said that the ambassadors from all of the countries invited by his church —including Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization—sent a represen tative except the United States. Pierce said the invasion was staged by President Reagan to “cover up his mess in Lebanon.” has been lifted, Reagan’s contentions of warehouses stocked full of am munition to export terror ism have turned out to be lies. Some artillery was found, but of in small quantities, and of a World War II variety. The U.N. Security Council voted 11-1 with three abstentions to con demn the invasion. see Tuesday, page 4 3,465 who had responded to the space agency’s nationwide call for a new group of astronauts. “I figured it would take a lot of luck to be selected,” Col. Bolden said in a recent interview. Not so, according to Dr. Carolyn S. Huntoon, deputy chief of NASA’s astronaut office and a member of the board that selects astronauts. Asked to what extent race was a factor in the selection process. Dr. Huntoon responded quickly: “In the selection process, it was not. In the recruitment process, it was a different story.” Emphasizing that color and sex were not to be considered, NASA had made a conscious effort to seek out members of minority groups and women, she said. The first astronauts, “The Original Seven” chosen in 1959, were white males. Why? Partly because the new space agency, which had been hurriedly organized in 1958 in response to Soviet success in launching the first manmade satellite, was feeling its way and had settled on one idea that had little to do—directly—with race, religion or national origin. Astronauts, NASA concluded at that time, should be test pilots because the characteristics that made good test pilots* also made good astronauts. ...continued next week* 30C